Morton insists his decision had nothing to do with the FTC investigating Vemma, which he claims he had no knowledge of.

As a leader, when you see your people’s checks crash, month after month and week after week… and your only qualified Presidential six-figure earner is your younger sister, as a leader who actually cares about their team – it doesn’t just eat you up inside.

I mean I was getting panic attacks, I was just not right. I was sick, I was crying myself to sleep.

Our intention was not to drop a bomb on this company. Our intention was not to cause a riot to this company, y’know.

We had no idea about this FTC thing. We had no idea that Vemma was going to shut its doors and get closed down.

Y’know I’m a firm believer that we had guardian angels watching over our family.

How else do you explain four weeks before the company that, y’know you were a bit part of, a big brand, a big face of the company, and four weeks later when you leave the doors get closed – and you have the “Plan B” ready for everybody else.

And there you have it, according to Morton, he had no idea the FTC were investigating Vemma, much the less about to shut them down.

Definitely one of the biggest coincidences I’ve seen in the MLM industry yet.

Meanwhile whilst acknowledging perception of his persona is that of a “loud mouth, arrogant, cocky dickhead who’s only concerned about money”, Morton acknowledged he “made mistakes” in Vemma.

According to Morton though, Vemma themselves should shoulder some of the responsibility for that perception and mistakes made.

I’ve always been kind of the “rah rah guy” for B.K. and his company.

Get everybody excited and jacked up, and screaming “I will win” and “We’re going to the moon, we’re going to a billion”… Y’know that was a the role that was given to me.

I fit it, y’know I think I’m a fairly decent speaker. I ran with that role.

And y’know what, at twenty-one or twenty-two, when you’re giving a kid thirty to fifty thousand dollars a month… what do you think is going to happen?

And the company is pumping you with everything you want. Y’know they took us on private jets, we had a care program, it was built around lifestyle and luxury – which fed into this entire persona.

I grew up in a midwest town called Bexley, Ohio and I had a hundred and six kids in my highschool graduating class.

Y’know I’m a normal kid and today I’m back to that normal kid. I’m not loud, I’m not obnoxious anymore.

I’m twenty-six in two months and this time I’m not gunna go into Jeunesse… this time we’re gunna do it the right way.

Morton doesn’t elaborate on what exactly “the right way” means to him, or how it differs from how he built his Vemma business.

M Norway:
Vemma’s Alexa ranking confirms his story about a gradually declining number of reps / gradually reduced monthly paychecks.

The statistic indicates more people leaving Vemma than the number of new people joining it — over a long period of time, more than a year.

I kept going, I kept recruiting, I kept enrolling, I kept building. Y’know I sponsored a lot of phenomenal people but it just kept going down.

That usually happens when a program is 100% focused on recruitment. “It will run out of people to recruit”, i.e. the supply of people is clearly limited. And it will be even more limited if the focus is on specific groups of people.

Vemma would most likely have collapsed anyway, sooner or later, if it had continued with its current model.

YPR Young People Revolution is a short term idea. It will work for a few months until a local market (college, etc.) is completely saturated, leaving that market almost “dead” for months or years to come, negatively affecting other similar markets.

It’s actually the idea that will fail, not the company. The idea will be “used up” and “worn out” and will need to be replaced by a new one.

My prediction:

Alex Morton will continue to under-perform in Jeunesse too, after the first initial months (if he continues with the same idea). He will be “yesterday’s news” in the market, “the outdated model only a few people can be interested in”.

M Norway: Vemma’s Alexa ranking confirms his story about a gradually declining number of reps / gradually reduced monthly paychecks.

according to a blog post, vemma was called for a meeting with BBB officials over concerns regarding the recruitment of students. vemma allegedly agreed to change its practices.

vemma was under media pressure from around 2013 regarding it’s YPR movement under the leadership of alex morton.

it’s entirely possible boreyko told morton to kill YPR and find a new market. the resultant slowing down, may be reflected in the alexa rating and the pissedoffness of morton which led to him finally quitting vemma. i mean , maybe?

blogger:

Vemma officials were called in for a sit-down with the BBB because of concerns raised over their marketing of the distributor program to high school and college students. They have since altered their approach and toed the line with the BBB on that issue.

“Male Fourthies Revolution”, just to be sure to limit the market to one specific, identifiable group.

The market for income opportunities works just like any other market. If you try to present something as “hot” and “trendy”, it will usually be short lived.

Penny auction based Ponzi schemes were “hot and trendy” in 2012, but that idea is almost guaranteed to fail if anyone tries to introduce the same idea now.

It’s the idea itself that will fail. That idea has simply been “used up” and “worn out” in all its variations. You will find a few enthusiast trying to relive “the good old days” as they remember it, but that’s all.

It will be similar for YPR. That idea has most likely been used up and worn out long time ago. If it failed to work in Vemma then it will also fail to work in other companies.

My prediction was simply based on “basic market knowledge” about how markets in general work.

A revolution (from the Latin revolutio, “a turn around”) is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time. Aristotle described two types of political revolution:

* Complete change from one constitution to another

* Modification of an existing constitution.

Revolutions have occurred through human history and vary widely in terms of methods, duration, and motivating ideology. Their results include major changes in culture, economy, and socio-political institutions.

YPR didn’t really deliver any fundamental changes in power or organizational structure. It only made young people look inexperienced / easy to lead and mislead — like a new group of “low hanging fruits”.

“Resistance in the market”

Several comments here and other places have mentioned that “Vemma didn’t deserve it (the FTC action)”, pointing out that the action “most likely was related to the YPR hype a year ago”.

One example (the first one I found):

Hi Guys
Brad and Alex did a good job!
100 of FTC Complaints – read this story:

“Brad and Alex did a good job” means that they screwed it up, generating a lot of complaints to FTC / IC3, and a lot of negative publicity.

“2012 idea”

That’s a sign of the fading influence of Vemma.

In 2012, Arizona State University was instrumental in marketing the group to students and launching the “Young People Revolution,” also known as the YPR movement, but times have changed.

Most of the students in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tempe questioned by Al Jazeera America said they had heard of the company, immediately identifying it as a pyramid scheme.

– – – –
projects.aljazeera.com/2014/multilevel-marketing/

“World Ventures, Norway”

World Ventures tried a similar strategy in Norway, trying to introduce it among higher education students. It generated the same type of negative publicity, and WV was eventually banned from that market 2 years later (after a long regulatory process, including 2 counter lawsuits).

CONCLUSION

I’m reasonably sure that the YPR idea will continue to create trouble for the ones who tries to make it work.

Young people (e.g. 14-18 years, 18-23 years) can be seen as a “vulnerable group of consumers” due to lack of experience. It can be seen as “predatory trade practice” when someone tries to recruit them into a recruitment driven opportunity.

Vemma didn’t handle that problem correctly either. It placed the cause of the problem “out there, among school principal teachers and parents”.

We underestimated the reaction from high school principals, teachers and some parents. Several schools have banned Verve.

We have also seen an increase in parental complaints with the Better Business Bureau. Also, the media has not looked favorably on our minor policy either in a few reports.

“Parental protests” literally means “if you want to teach entrepreneurial skills to kids, focus on your own children and stay away from mine”.

From some of the comments (businessforhome).

It really sucks that something that has created success for minors all over the world that they can share and enjoy amongst people their age has created all this controversy!
– – – –
Vemma will still soar to a billion dollar company, and there is nothing parents and teachers and “haters” can do about that!
– – – –
In my opinion, the decision may have been more related to the energy drinks rather then the NM aspect. There are many life lessons that should be taught in the classrooms, including entrepreneurial business skills.

I would ask why parents and teachers complained to the BBB instead of seeking to understand the concept that could create financial freedom for those who may not have the opportunity to attend college; as well as for those who become financially debt-burdened by college and are unable to find jobs after graduation.

There’s a general lack of “contact with reality” among half of the people (the ones who directly made comments about it), e.g. “THEY should try to understand US” (that’s probably exactly what THEY did).

with practically everybody blaming alex morton and the YPR movement for vemmas current crisis, his parents have stepped in to clear the air.

in a post under vemma lawyer kevin thompsons video, which includes disparaging comments about the YPR movement, marc morton says:

Marc Morton: It’s interesting to hear comments about this “character Alex Morton who left Vemma,” and somehow that is construed as a reason Vemma is in this situation.

First of all , it’s interesting that Alex’s mentor and leader in Vemma, the “Founder of the YPR” Brad Alkazin, is never mentioned in any of the blogs or videos that have come out in the past week or so.

I woud like to bring some facts to the story instead of the propaganda from those feeding the information.

Alex and I walked into Vemma in February of 2011 and met with Bk along with our sponsor.

Alex was a 21 year old Junior at ASU, and was leasing condos with is RE license along with fulltime classes. Vemma’s volume was around $75 million that past year.

With no prior experience, Alex was taught by Brad Alkazin the ins and outs of the business. Brad spent 6 months on Alex and Josh Noble’s sofa holding their hands as they learned how to build a Vemma business on a college campus.

When Alex hit a level of platinum BK decided to take Alex on a private jet to a regional in Charlotte, N. C.

BK produced a video titled “Young Crusaders Vemma” that signaled the launch of the YPR.

From that point on BK and Vemma made a very conscious decison to market to young people. Bk made the decison to build the Verve Lounge next to the campus of ASU for recruitment.

Bk made the decision to put Alex and his team on his private jet producing videos to help build the brand.

Bk made the decision to produce a video of Alex performing an opportunity event at verve central that was responsible for enrolling tens of thousands of young people around the world.

Bk made the decision to produce a text invite with Alex so that everyone in the company could text their friends.

BK put these kids on billboards at the Phoenix Suns arena and posted the pics around the world.

BK make the decison to rebrand the Verve energy drink and created “Verve Bold” for the Young market.

My point is the YPR was carefully orhestrated by our upline Tom Alkazin along with his son Brad Alkazin and financed by Bk Boreyko.

This “character Alex Morton” was created by BK @ Vemma. And those who know Alex personally, not the portrayed image, totally understand the real story, and what his heart is all about. And deep down so does BK.

These are facts not inuendo. We have listened to all the noise and felt we had to respond to the ridiculous charges against our son

Aug 29, 2015 8:55pm

marc mortons clarification will of course be biased, seeing that he is alex mortons daddy, but there can be some truth in the idea that alex morton did not ‘individually’ create the YPR movement but had the full support of boreyko and the alkazins.